PALMYRA, Missouri (Reuters) - The crest of the swollen Mississippi
River moved relentlessly downstream on Saturday as volunteers manned
sandbagged levees, nursed hopes and coped with the costs of the worst
Midwest flooding in 15 years.

"At times like these you don't know whether to cry or laugh. But
here in the Midwest we tend to favor the latter," said Charlotte Hoerr,
who with her husband Brent farms land not far from the river in this
small Missouri town.

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The river's relentless violence overcame more than two dozen levees
this week, submerging small towns and vast stretches of prime farmland
as the nation's most vital waterway absorbed the runoff of torrential
rains that put many Iowa towns under water last week.

The Midwest flooding and storms blamed for 24 deaths since late May
have caused damage in the billions of dollars and are expected to push
U.S. and world food prices higher.

Up to 5 million acres may have been lost to just-planted crops at
the heart of the world's top grain and food exporter. Prices for corn,
cattle and hogs all set records this week due to the floods, as a world
economy already slammed by inflation from soaring energy prices
absorbed the blow.

The spillage onto the Mississippi's vast flood plain covered
thousands of acres of crops. But several days of dry weather this week
cut water flows, as did the levee breaches.

"It's starting to feel like the worst of the crisis has passed,"
said Farm Bureau official Blake Roderick in nearby Hannibal, boyhood
home of author Mark Twain.

The river in Hannibal was expected to crest Saturday at 28.2 feet, below the record 31.80 feet set in the 1993 flood.

"We're still concerned that levees will be overtopped," said Ron
Fournier, a spokesman for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "If the
sandbags don't hold, there's going to be water in agricultural fields
and residences."

EAST ST. LOUIS THREATENED

St. Louis, 100 miles south, saw the river crest on Friday well below levels seen in the last major flood in 1993.

One worry was water seeping underneath levees across from St. Louis in the impoverished Illinois city of East St. Louis.

If the decades-old levees there failed, the river would spill onto a
flood plain where 150,000 people live, said Timothy Kusky, a flood
expert at Saint Louis University.

President George W. Bush toured some of the devastation in Iowa on
Thursday, and the White House said relief would be made available from
$4 billion in the government's disaster fund.

Bridges and highways have been swamped, factories shut down, water
and power utilities damaged, and the earnings of railroads, farmers and
myriad other businesses disrupted.

"Now we begin the process of assessing debris removal and short-term
and long-term housing needs," said Bret Vorhees of Iowa Emergency
Management. He said requests had declined for sandbags, water pumps,
shelter and security.

Flood relief was rapidly becoming a political issue in an election year in the United States. Republican presidential candidate John McCain toured Iowa on Thursday, separately from Bush, while Democratic candidate Barack Obama helped stack sandbags earlier in the week in Quincy, Illinois.

"I've seen firsthand the growing magnitude of this flooding
disaster, and unfortunately the end is not yet in sight," Illinois
governor Rod Blagojevich said on Friday, saying he had asked Bush for
faster aid for 20 flooded Illinois counties.

Don Rust, a farmer from Ursa, Illinois, not far from Quincy, estimated cropland 13 miles long and six miles

wide was flooded in his area.

"It's a disaster, alright," said his wife Lisa, surveying the scene. "Welcome to the Midwest."